Next Stop: Maui, Hawaii

Ben's Next Stop Is Maui, Hawaii!
In February I went to Maui with my grandparents Nonna Jeanne and Grandpa Ed, my mom and my little brother. It was my first time there.
                                                               Here is a map of  Maui

This was one of my favorite trips I have ever been on. I got to do a lot of fun things there. One of my favorite things was going on a boat and seeing many whales.

The boats aren't allowed to get too close, but you can see three spouts and the back of a whale here. 

Even back at the condo I could see some whales. We stayed at Papakea Resort and I watched the whales through binoculars.

Another thing I learned to do was blow a conch shell, they are kind of hard to blow but after a while I got the hang of it. We do that every day at sundown to say goodbye to the sun. They have been doing that for many years.

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I learned how to blow a conch shell at sunset

Another thing I enjoyed doing was playing at the beach   nearby my condo . My mom got me an underwater camera to take pictures of things I found in the cove. I found a lot of interesting things.

Here I am playing on the beach with my little brother

One of my other favorite things was going to the aquarium , I had a lot of fun. We got to have lunch there, and I saw fish and sea turtles, I also saw a statue of a whales body and body parts.

                                                 

                                                                  Here are some turtles and fish

Also when I was there, I went to a Whale museum and I learned a lot about whales.

I also saw how people would hunt whales back then.

But at the end of the trip we had to leave and I was sad after my fun trip. Although I had a fun time there.

•  Have you ever been to Hawaii?
•  If so, what island did you visit?
• What  was your most favorite thing you did?

                                     

My new Blog Mascot ~ Meet Chris

I would like you to meet my new blog mascot. His name is Chris and he is an octopus.
Here is Chris!

He has some devices connected to his tentacles, like a mirror, stars, pockets with puppets inside, and handles with little toys on them. All of these toys keep babies busy.

He has black and white circles on his bottom. When babies are very young they can't see colors, they can see black and white shapes.

He is very special and I got him for Christmas one year when I was a baby. I think it is pretty cool. What about you?

Zuma Beach, California - Learning Something New!

This summer I learned to surf at Zuma Beach California. I joined the Malibu Makos Surf camp. First they give you wetsuits. On the beach the coaches give you a safety talk about the ocean. I learned alot of new things like how to watch for undertow and safely swim to shore.

 

Next the coaches take you to ocean. I learned how to do a dolphin dive. This is where you dive under the wave before it breaks to get further out in the ocean. This was the scariest part for me. It seemed strange to go under the wave. But when I finally tried, it worked!


Then it was time to get up on the board. The coach held the back of the board  to keep it steady and I stood up. It takes alot of balance!

Finally I caught a wave on my own!

I had a great time learning to surf! I was nervous at first, but I had great coaches that taught me the steps and made it easy to learn. I look forward to surfing more next summer and getting better!

Have you ever tried something new that made you nervous at first?

Next stop: Utah Olympic Park

Hello friends,
Now that it is the end of summer I am back home and have some photos to share. I spent some of my summer in Park City Utah. I joined a summer camp at the Utah Olympic Park to learn freestyle jumping. In the summer time this is a world class training site for teams from all around the world. I was lucky to have some great coaches and meet some Olympians.

I even brought Mrs. Yollis' Panda for a visit:

Notice the small jump behind me. It is called the mini and everyone starts here. We then get to go on the big one which is the furthest right of the three. Only the professionals go off the 3 on the left.

 First they give us wetsuits, lifejackets, helmuts, boots and skis to wear. The object is to learn how to do different jumps without getting hurt. At first I was nervous but each time I went off the jump it got easier.

Here I am going off the jump. I am practicing a Spread Eagle jump:

Here I am practicing my start:

Finally after many days of practice I am ready for the BIG jump. Its called the single it is the jump on the far right. When you jump they make bubbles in the pool so you have a soft landing:

I was really nervous to go on the big jump, but my coaches said I was ready. It seemed like I was so high up.

See the little black spot at the top? That is me!

Here is a video of my favorite jump. My goal was to go off the single jump and attempt a 180. This is turn in the air. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it but after many tries and good coaching I reached my goal.

I learned that even when something seems impossible if you keep trying you can do it.

What did you do this summer?

Did you learn anything new?

Next Stop: Summer!

We are now on summer break! I will miss my awesome 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Yollis and classmates, but I am excited to be a fourth grader! I will be travelling a lot this summer and my mom says I need to be "unplugged" and outside. So I won't be online much, but I will take a lot of photos on my travels and post them soon.

I will be doing some summer reading. I love Franny K. Stein books!

Even my little brother Tanner likes to read!

What will you be reading this summer?  Have a great summer!

Next stop: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

My family had a vacation to Florida for spring break. First we went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I was actually born here and alot of my grandparents and family still live here.

I went out on my Nonno's boat on the Intracoastal waterway. This is a large canal/river that runs parrallel to the ocean so boats can travel from Florida up the east coat.  Here I am on the "Blue Streak."

Fort Lauderdale is known as the "Venice of  America" because it has many canals and boats. Many people have houses on the water with a boat parked right out back at a dock!

The intracoastal is so deep cruise ships can come into the port of Fort Lauderdale.
Here is a photo from the air to get an idea.

The bridges go up when large boats like this need to go through:

Facts about Fort Lauderdale:
The population is 183,606. There are over 42,000 yachts in Fort Lauderdale!
It is located in southern Florida on the coast, 23 miles north of Miami.

Do you know any facts about Fort Lauderdale?
Have you been there and if so what was your favorite part?
Do you know how Fort Lauderdale got its name?

Next Stop - Santa Barbara Zoo

Ben's Next Stop is the Santa Barbara Zoo! This is a great zoo for kids as its not to big to walk around. They have a fun little train my younger brothers really like. And it is located right on the beach! We went to see the baby Giraffe. His name is Daniel and he was born at the zoo in January 2011. He was an unexpected additon to the zoo. His mom's name is Audrey. She came from the Los Angeles zoo and they didn't know she was pregnant. One morning the zoo keeper came in and was surprised to see a baby giraffe!

Here is Ben feeding the giraffes lettuce. We used to feed them biscuits, but they were getting too fat so they changed thier diets to something healthier:

This is Audrey, the mommy coming for a snack. See the train behind her?

Here is Daniel and Audrey. Notice the oceanview they have- nice!

Daniel was  5 foot 9 inches tall and weighed 106 pounds when he was born. That is the size of a human  teenager!

Do you know any facts about giraffes?